Catherine

Glenfiddich 12-year is my favorite.

That's just disgusting. I wonder how some people can look themselves in the mirror every morning.

Bingo, KC!! All those things Taxguy has probably seen. And if you've had Sch C clients with anything but tiny businesses, you've seen balance sheets, too. This sounds like it could be a great way for Taxguy to "get his feet wet" with clients whose situation he already knows well and whose business is not particularly complicated. I would _not_, however, recommend to Taxguy that he start specializing in corporate returns for multi-state entities with subsidiaries -- YET. Catherine

I have no acks at all yet, either. :angry:

My favorite is Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. Super dark; yum!

@OldJack: There are pluses and minuses to that. Done well, a prior-year return can be a huge help. That said, there are two big problems with beginning your first-ever corporate return for a pre-existing corporation. First one is I have _never_ seen adjustment accounts on an 1120-S prior-year return done by someone else on that were correct (frequently they are left _blank_). Not fun to have to go back and fix (if it can even be done with an older corporation). Second one is that those prior-year returns _rarely_ come with full depreciation schedules including assets, date in service, prior year depreciation, choices made on asset life (and there sure are assets where the wrong schedule has been chosen), fully depreciated assets still owned... again, not fun to have to excavate and re-create. Easier to do it right the first time, without an incorrect "cheat sheet" as a template. Catherine

Well, if you're ever going to do them, starting with a small, new business run by people you already know is a good way to go. Have you dealt with K-1's from S-corps? Then you know what the return will be heading for. Take a look at the forms and see how similar in many ways to the 1040. Ask if it's a c-corp or s-corp, take a look at the books if they'll let you before committing. For s-corps look carefully at the OAA and AAA accounts and get them right; losses are limited to capital invested but many times this isn't tracked properly. The other thing is, if you try and figure later it's too much for you, you can back out gracefully. People respect you more when you tell them, "I'm not comfortable anymore and think you need someone who does more of these returns than I do." Especially folks you already know. Catherine

Gee, I was thinking "Nirvana backup".... Smells Like Tax Spirit? B)

You're welcome down here tomorrow to help me dig out from the foot of snow we're expected to get. ;-) And when my current subscription runs out, I will be checking you folks for online backup. catherine

I'd planned on adding a statement. It will about double the length of this otherwise super-simple return, LOL. Catherine

Ain't that the truth!! I sent some W-2 data to Massachusetts online in January of last year (direct login from the client) -- to THIS DAY it still shows "processing" as the status; same status as it had immediately after being transmitted. Over a year!

I ended up getting a pair of "computer glasses" just for that purpose. I was getting the _worst_ cricks in my neck. No more! Now to stop the hunching, somehow.

For me, it's my shoulders, from hunching forward. No matter how much I try to remind myself to sit up straight.

The problem I have with this is on the Form 4137, Line 1a -- "Name of employer to whom you were required to, but did not report all your tips". The employer does get tip information from the wait staff - but specifically does NOT accept this information from the counter staff. That means this person may be subject to a 50% penalty for not reporting information that the employer will not accept. So I was wondering if I'd missed something somewhere. But it sounds more like the employer is missing their own duties. Sigh. Catherine

Can't find guidance on this anywhere.... (it's probably staring me in the face and I'm just not seeing it, like the USB cable I looked for for a half-hour that was on my desktop in plain sight). Client has part-time work in a restaurant. This person is NOT a table server; instead is responsible for getting sodas and fountain drinks ready for servers, but does wait on some few folks who sit at the counter. Instead of server wages of ~ $3.00/hour, client is paid $9.50/hour because no tip income is expected. However, client did get about $600 total tips last year. How do I report this? I won't bother folks with the different ways I've considered and looked up. Thanks, Catherine

Ditto and more!! I have MozyPro online secure backup that does a daily backup in the background. I have it set for "faster backup, slower computer" but have noticed NO diminution of computer speed with that. We have on-site backup hard drive that happens (...not as often as it should) for "cold-metal restore" capability, as MozyPro does DATA, not executables or system. That on-site mirrors itself to a second drive weekly (automatically), and the mirrored disk gets swapped regularly with an identical one in an off-site safe deposit box. Then I close every tax year by putting pdf's of all returns and scanned original documents on an archive-quality, gold-coated CD or DVD, which also goes into the safe box. On another forum I read, one man a couple years ago had his office burgled during tax season; all computers and peripherals taken. Thanks to an auto-backup system and an external hard drive he took home daily, they lost NO work, just ("just" -- hollow laugh) a couple days to replace equipment and re-load programs. Learned my lesson from his story! Catherine

My older daughter brought home this story today: One of her co-workers is a 24-year-old college graduate. When the boss handed out the W-2's, my daughter's response was "Great!". Her co-worker looked at the envelope in his hand and said, "So, what is this FOR?" Catherine

More important than the drive, then (assuming you pick decent hardware), will be your backup software. We've been very happy with Acronis True Image. Personally, I don't use the scheduled task for automatic backup, but don't see why it shouldn't work as well as the rest of the system. Catherine

Beware: flash drives can (and DO) fail without warning. If that's your only backup, at least use multiples. What do you want from the external hard drive? Network access to files? Daily backup of returns? Ease of taking work home; just pick up the drive and go? All those can change the type of drive and setup thereof. So, more details, please. Catherine

How long can I expect it to take to get ack's on 1099's? First ones I submitted were on 1/15 (nine days ago, now), and status is still just "Transmitted to EFC". Is this usual (note I did NOT say "reasonable")? Catherine

I signed up this year for Fee Collect in case any client really wanted to use it. However, the returns I've been working on all get plastered with SBBT RAL-form nonsense and warnings of disclosures needed and all kinds of stuff -- but nowhere do I see just a Fee Collect option (I do see the Audit Shield option on the billing invoice options page). So, where can I find out about how to use Fee Collect without spending a month plowing through stuff that doesn't apply? And if I decide that this is just not worth it, how can I "un-apply" for this so-called "convenience"? Thanks, all. Catherine

The best blonde jokes I've heard have all been told to me by blondes.... The smart blonde women I know seem to take a real glee in blonde jokes. Catherine

I loved it and sent it off to a couple of friends who will also appreciate it. Thanks! Catherine

Can you say "crunch your keel?" Catherine

Sure, why not? Catherine